politics The Best John F. Kennedy Quotes

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A list of the best John F. Kennedy quotes. This list is arranged by which famous John F. Kennedy quotes have received the most votes, so only the greatest John F. Kennedy quotes are at the top of the list. All the most popular quotes from John F. Kennedy should be listed here, but if any were missed you can add more at the end of the list. This list includes notable John F. Kennedy quotes on various subjects, many of which are inspirational and thought provoking.

This list answers the questions, "What are the best John F. Kennedy quotes?" and "What is the most famous John F. Kennedy quote?"

You can see what subjects these historic John F. Kennedy quotes fall under displayed to the right of the quote. Be sure to vote so your favorite John F. Kennedy saying won't fall to the bottom of the list.

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1

473 29

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what, together, we can do for the freedom of man.John F. Kennedy

2

221 14

Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.John F. Kennedy

3

313 24

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.John F. Kennedy

4

221 16

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.John F. Kennedy

5

209 15

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.John F. Kennedy

6

215 16

This country cannot afford to be materially rich and spiritually poor.John F. Kennedy

7

210 16

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.John F. Kennedy

8

132 9

World peace, like community peace, does not require that each man love his neighbor -- it requires only that they live together with mutual tolerance, submitting their disputes to a just and peaceful settlement.John F. Kennedy

9

120 8

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.John F. Kennedy

10

125 9

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility -- I welcome it.John F. Kennedy

11

164 15

Failure has no friends.John F. Kennedy

12

132 11

Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.John F. Kennedy

13

117 9

The supreme reality of our time is the vulnerability of this planet.John F. Kennedy

14

94 7

The world is very different now. For man holds in his hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life.John F. Kennedy

15

32 1

The unity of freedom has never relied on uniformity of opinion.John F. Kennedy

16

148 17

The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.John F. Kennedy

17

136 15

I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolutewhere no Catholic prelate would tell the President how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to votewhere no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preferenceand where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him. I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewishwhere no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical sourcewhere no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officialsand where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all. For while this year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed, in other years it has been, and may someday be again, a Jewor a Quakeror a Unitarianor a Baptist. It was Virginias harassment of Baptist preachers, for example, that helped lead to Jeffersons statute of religious freedom. Today I may be the victimbut tomorrow it may be youuntil the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped at a time of great national peril. Finally, I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday endwhere all men and all churches are treated as equalwhere every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choicewhere there is no Catholic vote, no anti-Catholic vote, no bloc voting of any kindand where Catholics, Protestants and Jews, at both the lay and pastoral level, will refrain from those attitudes of disdain and division which have so often marred their works in the past, and promote instead the American ideal of brotherhood. That is the kind of America in which I believe. And it represents the kind of Presidency in which I believea great office that must neither be humbled by making it the instrument of any one religious group nor tarnished by arbitrarily withholding its occupancy from the members of any one religious group. I believe in a President whose religious views are his own private affair, neither imposed by him upon the Nation or imposed by the Nation upon him as a condition to holding that office.John F. Kennedy

18

81 6

We are under exercised as a nation. We look instead of play. We ride instead of walk. Our existence deprives us of the minimum of physical activity essential for healthy living.John F. Kennedy

19

89 8

In giving rights to others which belong to them, we give rights to ourselves and to our country.John F. Kennedy

20

41 2

Economic growth without social progress lets the great majority of people remain in poverty, while a privileged few reap the benefits of rising abundance.John F. Kennedy

21

78 7

Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource.John F. Kennedy

22

74 7

The margin is narrow, but the responsibility is clear.John F. Kennedy

23

78 8

Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.John F. Kennedy

24

82 9

The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shinning.John F. Kennedy

25

66 6

When we got into office, the thing that surprised me most was to find that things were just as bad as we'd been saying they were.John F. Kennedy

26

81 9

We prefer world law, in the age of self-determination, to world war in the age of mass extermination.John F. Kennedy

27

59 5

I look forward to an America which will reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or statecraft. I look forward to an America which will steadily raise the standards of artistic accomplishment and which will steadily enlarge cultural opportunities for all of our citizens. And I look forward to an America which commands respect throughout the world not only for its strength but for its civilization as well.John F. Kennedy

28

35 2

There is always inequity in life. Some men are killed in a war and some men are wounded, and some men never leave the country, and some men are stationed in the Antarctic and some are stationed in San Francisco. Its very hard in military or in personal life to assure complete equality. Life is unfair.John F. Kennedy

29

43 3

Dante once said that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality.John F. Kennedy

30

81 10

If anyone is crazy enough to want to kill a president of the United States, he can do it. All he must be prepared to do is give his life for the president s.John F. Kennedy

31

25 1

To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required, not because the Communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.John F. Kennedy

32

49 4

Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.John F. Kennedy

33

49 4

Most of us are conditioned for many years to have a political viewpoint -- Republican or Democratic, liberal, conservative, or moderate. The fact of the matter is that most of the problems that we now face are technical problems, are administrative problems. They are very sophisticated judgments, which do not lend themselves to the great sort of passionate movements which have stirred this country so often in the past. -- They deal with questions which are now beyond the comprehension of most men.John F. Kennedy

34

68 8

We must use time as a tool, not as a couch.John F. Kennedy

35

46 4

We believe that if men have the talent to invent new machines that put men out of work, they have the talent to put those men back to work.John F. Kennedy

36

66 8

It is time for a new generation of leadership, to cope with new problems and new opportunities. For there is a new world to be won.John F. Kennedy

37

45 4

The great battleground for the defense and expansion of freedom today is the whole southern half of the globe... the lands of the rising peoples. Their revolution is the greatest in human history. They seek an end to injustice, tyranny and exploitation. More than an end, they seek a beginning.John F. Kennedy

38

50 5

A child miseducated is a child lost.John F. Kennedy

39

31 2

Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind. War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.John F. Kennedy

40

64 9

I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.John F. Kennedy

41

42 4

The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring this endeavor will light our bounty and all who serve it, and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.John F. Kennedy

42

21 1

People have not been horrified by war to a sufficient extent... War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige as the warrior does today.John F. Kennedy

43

45 5

44

44 5

Once you say you're going to settle for second, that's what happens to you in life.John F. Kennedy

45

27 2

Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.John F. Kennedy

46

54 8

The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways.John F. Kennedy

47

50 7

Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said Because it is there. Well, space is there, and were going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there.John F. Kennedy

48

45 6

But peace does not rest in the charters and covenants alone. It lies in the hearts and minds of all people. So let us not rest all our hopes on parchment and on paper, let us strive to build peace, a desire for peace, a willingness to work for peace in the hearts and minds of all of our people. I believe that we can. I believe the problems of human destiny are not beyond the reach of human beings.John F. Kennedy

49

19 1

And we must face the fact that the United States is neither omnipotent or omniscientthat we are only 6 percent of the worlds populationthat we cannot impose our will upon the other 94 percent of mankindthat we cannot right every wrong or reverse every adversityand that therefore there cannot be an American solution to every world problem.John F. Kennedy

50

48 7

Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation.John F. Kennedy

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